If a war broke out between America’s Cat People and Dog People tomorrow, the fight would be evenly matched and the battle lines would be somewhat distinct. This, according to a map created by the Washington Post using data from the American Veterinary Medical Association that shows which pet each state has more of: dogs or cats.

Dog People dominate the south, while the cat bias grows heavier as you move north — especially in the midwest and northeast — which makes sense from a practicality standpoint: densely-populated cities aren’t nearly as dog-friendly, and taking a dog outside to use the bathroom doesn’t jibe with harsh winters. But it also doesn’t make sense at all, because every state should be a dog state.

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Overall, according to the AVMA’s data, dog households (43 million) outnumber cat households (36 million) in America. But cat owners are hoarding the ever-loving furballs out of their felines: the number of total cats owned (74 million) outpaces the number of dogs owned (70 million).

Most states carry a balanced cat-dog ratio, and the country is essentially divided evenly on the cat/dog thing. That’s not the case worldwide. Here’s a global map created by the Post using data from Euoromonitor (data was only provided for 54 countries):

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According to Wonkblog, dogs outnumber cats 10-to-1 in India and 2.5-to-1 in China, while cats outnumber dogs 3-to-1 in Switzerland, Austria, and Turkey. Meanwhile, the entire continent of South America is essentially dog-heavy.

There’s a very easy explanation here. More people in the “cat states” live in smaller places that likely can’t have dogs. The “dog states” are mostly poor shitholes where houses can be had for under 100k, therefore greater chance of owning a dog.

That doesn’t explain the Dakotas, Nebraska, etc. It looks to me like it’s more about climate in the U.S. — cats where it’s colder, dogs where its warmer. (Except Florida and Montana.)

This mostly holds for the word at large except some instances that can be explained by history (cats were originally domesticated in Egypt and are still prevalent in the Middle East, dogs were originally domesticated in Asia and are still prevalent in India and China, Central and South America were colonized by “dog people” from Iberia).

If you click the link it explains this, cats take up less space and cost less money so people who want a cat can afford to have 3 cats for the same price that they could afford one golden retriever. It also points out that if you just count households dog’s outnumber cat’s and that more people fancy themselves dog people. So more people like dogs and own dogs but people who own cats own more than one.

Also, they don’t know where dog’s were first domesticated, the study that suggested they were from Asia had been testing dogs from…. Asia. So when later they tested dogs common in African villages they found their ancestors were from Africa and they’re bloodlines were just as old.

Mike Keesey- Cats were never domesticated. At least not by man and in NO particular area of the earth. They gradually “domesticated” themselves in various areas of the world and remain the ONLY “domestic” animal that can return to feral (wild)

@Eric E Hulette, looks like I was wrong about them being domesticated in Egypt, but not too far off. Here’s a high-level review of the genomic evidence: [www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu] (Discussion of domestic cats begins on page 273.)

Domestic cats seem to be derived primarily from a Near Eastern population of Felis silvestris lybica (known as the African Wildcat, although its range extends in West Asia). However, there are some more divergent mitochondrial lineages present at lower frequencies, so the authors suggest other domestication events leading to populations that were later subsumed by the Near Eastern domestic cats. It seems to me there are two other possibilities, though: 1) domesticated cats interbred to some extant with local wildcat populations as they spread out, or 2) the Near Eastern population they were derived from was not homogenous. (#1 seems more likely, given how distinct modern wildcat populations are.)

As for whether they are domesticated, I’ll ask my cat who follows me around the house wherever I go and sleeps on top of me. And as for cats being the only domesticated animal that can return to feral, no. There are feral dogs (e.g., Carolina dogs), feral pigs (e.g., razorbacks), feral horses (e.g., Chincoteague ponies), and even feral camels (in Australia).

Fair enough about Africa vs. Asia — there’s still some debate about the origins of domestic dogs and it looks like the answer, whatever it is, is pretty complex. But it does seem like the primary ancestral source for the majority of the world’s domesticated dogs is likely Asian (although whether it’s West or East Asian is murky).

In any even, though, my point was that the place of domestication is reflected in the map. So even if domestic dogs are partly descended from African populations, the map does reflect that. The only African countries with data are dog countries (apart from Egypt, which borders the Near East). Unfortunately there’s not much data.

I also forgot to mention that Mexico makes sense as a dog country even without Iberian influence, since the native populations had dogs (Xoloitzcuintli). French Guiana as the only cat country in South America makes sense, too, since it’s the only South American nation that is a department/region of France (a cat country).

I think that an apt point but I don’t know about their feelings on cats. I know feral dogs are a way bigger nuisance than feral cats. There was a video that came out awhile ago of kid just throwing puppies in a river from Russia or Afghanistan and everyone lost their shit. In super poor area feral cats keep varmint away and feral dogs steal food, garbage and attack kids so when they find litters of puppies they kill them because they grow up to be dangerous. Cat’s are more solitary and so just keep out of the way, out of sight out of mind.

@CaptainZapp, poor areas have a long history of drowning kittens, too. (I know someone who was made to do it as a kid.)

@ligel, interesting about Muslim areas — that would explain Indonesia, which I had been puzzling about. I wonder if this tradition has very deep pre-Islamic roots, since the Near East is where cats were domesticated. (Then again, it may be a primary area where dogs were domesticated, too, so….)

I don’t pick up anyone’s shit. I toss it into a garbage bag once a week and refill the perfumed cat litter. If we weren’t in a drought, I’d say our yard looked awesome and without the dead areas where dogs pee and poop.